the cabinet of dr. caligari

February 27, 2021

Celebrate the anniversary of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari with 20% off on all James Morrow titles

Rick Klaw blog bigfoot and the bodhisattva, centenary, Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, James Morrow, sale, shambling towards hiroshima, the asylum of dr caligari, the cabinet of dr. caligari, the cat's pajamas, the madonna and the starship

The groundbreaking Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari premiered in Germany on Feb 26, 1920. One of the earliest cult films, its influence would be felt on nearly every horror and noir movie that followed. Also, it served as an inspiration for James Morrow, author of The Asylum of Dr. Caligari. To celebrate this important movie and our author, Tachyon Publications is discounting all Morrow titles in our store through Morrow’s birthday on March 17 and finally ending on March 19, the 100th anniversary of US release.

20% off all James Morrow books, with free media mail shipping within the U.S. Use coupon code CALIGARI at checkout.

November 7, 2017

Tachyon tidbits featuring James Morrow, Kameron Hurley, John Picacio, and Leslie What

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized elizabeth story, evan narcisse, galen dara, historical novel society, io9, James Morrow, John Picacio, kameron hurley, lightspeed, michael dashow, olympic games, popular mechanics, review, star trek, the cabinet of dr. caligari, wadim kashin

The latest reviews and mentions of Tachyon titles and authors from around the web.

James Morrow, Kameron Hurley, John Picacio, and Leslie What

HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETY praises James Morrow’s THE ASYLUM OF DR. CALIGARI.

The story was inspired by the classic 1920s film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. While Morrow’s story is satirical and almost slapstick at times, it manages to avoid delving into the ridiculous, but a certain amount of patience with the absurdity is required. While it is possible to read this book without having much knowledge of Dr. Caligari or the original Robert Weine film, having that experience and background brings the story and the character to life all the more. Morrow successfully uses art as the link between the worlds (bridging from film to print), but the story is essentially original and all his, in all of its strange and interesting glory.

Kameron Hurley, author of the forthcoming APOCALYPSE NYX, contributes to POPULAR MECHANICS’ 8 Sci-Fi Writers on Where Star Trek Should Go Next.

There’s no better time for Star Trek to do what it does best—engaging in tough moral dilemmas. The episode I’m most interested in seeing Star Trek explore is one that addresses the scourge of perpetual war, and how to de-escalate it and come out the other side.

The Star Trek episode “A Taste of Armageddon” envisioned a 500-year-long war that continued to persist because the horror and brutality of that war were hidden from the people who fought it. It’s the horror of war, Kirk says, that forces us to end it. As long as we are able to put people to death neatly, cleanly, behind closed doors, away from the eyes of the media, of witnesses, war will continue without end.

As America soon enters its second decade of ongoing war in the Middle East, it’s worth asking this question again via the safe space-western format that allows us to divorce our political baggage from the moral question, and interrogate ourselves and our actions in a way that doesn’t feel like an attack.

I want a Star Trek that makes me engage with my own world in new ways, and challenges me to solve problems using the skills that made the series great: knowing and understanding your enemy, finding common ground, and being open to new experiences, to not just boldly go where no one has gone, but to not be a dick about it when you get there.

I want see an episode that tells us not only how to surface the horrors of war to drive action, but to create the egalitarian future Star Trek has always promised us.

Art: Wadim Kashin
Design: Elizabeth Story

On IO9, Evan Narcisse profiles artist John Picacio.

You may not know who John Picacio is by name but, if you’ve been a fan of A Song of Ice and Fire, then you’ve seen his work illuminating the world created by George R.R. Martin’s books. The award-winning illustrator helped define the looks of Jon Snow, Eddard Stark and other iconic ASoIaF characters before casting directors got cracking on HBO’s hit Game of Thrones television adaptation.

Picacio’s one of those artists whose work glows with a distinctive and elegant point-of-view. Aside from Martin, his linework has graced works by Michael Moorcock, Harlan Ellison, Joe R. Lansdale and tons of other science-fiction/fantasy luminaries. For the last few years, he’s also been creating Loteria Grande, a re-invented version of loteria, the classic Mexican game of chance. io9 is featuring at some of Picacio’s favorite pieces in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month—including his recollections about the creation of each illustration.

I grew up playing a card game with my family. It’s called Loteria, and it’s a Mexican game of chance, played much like Bingo. The icons on the cards are super-familiar within Mexican culture, but I wanted to re-imagine them in my own unique way. ‘La Sirena’ was one of the first of those visions, and she’ll always be one of my favorites because she caused a lot of people to fall in love with my Loteria work. This art ended up winning the 2013 Chesley Award for Best Product Illustration, when it appeared as a limited-run art card.

Art: Galen Dara

LIGHTSPEED (Nov. 2017 Issue 90) reprints “The Mutable Borders of Love” by Leslie What, author of OLYMPIC GAMES.

Though Marietta’s eyes are closed, she is wide awake, fingering the new sheets she gave Asher as part of his six-month anniversary present. The other parts were dinner, followed by multiple sexual favors. She has already thought ahead, to the seven-month anniversary, when she will trade dinner for breakfast, trade a languorous night of sex for a quickie. She worries about thinking so far ahead and having expectations concerning things she cannot fully control. Is this really the way being in love should feel?

Asher’s bed is a California king. It is out of place, too big for the eight-by-ten room. The sheets cost almost double the price of her queen-size, but she bought these for herself as much as him. Asher’s new sheets are crisp and cool dense cotton that makes them feel shiny. Marietta is obsessed by their smooth texture and fine weave. She can’t stop fidgeting with the fabric between her forefinger and thumb. The old sheets were a remnant from a previous relationship. No matter how many times they were laundered, the Hawaiian ginger scent favored by the woman Marietta has since replaced lingered like old smoke. Marietta hated sleeping over at Asher’s until tonight.

Her lover snores content beside her, something she calculates will continue another ten minutes before he fades into a deep and heavy sleep, at which time he will probably call out the names of women he dated before they met. These women are dead, just as her past sweethearts are dead, but it bothers her just the same, maybe because it’s an unwelcome reminder that not everyone’s strong enough to survive love.

For more info on THE ASYLUM OF DR. CALIGARI, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Elizabeth Story

For more info on OLYMPIC GAMES, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Michael Dashow

June 16, 2017

With THE ASYLUM OF DR. CALIGARI, James Morrow spins a great yarn

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized andrew wheeler, diabolique, elizabeth story, James Morrow, joe karpierz, mt void, see the elephant, sheila m merrit, the antick musings of g.b.h. hornswoggler, the asylum of dr caligari, the cabinet of dr. caligari, william grabowski

Reviews keep rolling in for James Morrow’s THE ASYLUM OF DR. CALIGARI.

For SEE THE ELEPHANT, William Grabowski praises the novella.

Morrow’s new novella, THE ASYLUM OF DR. CALIGARI, is political satire well beyond the legendary 1920 German Expressionist film THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI. Flinging love-darts at Freud, surrealism, Nietzsche (brilliant madman, or just plain mad?), Picasso, and the intrinsic (or not) value of art, Morrow pulls off that most difficult “trick”: humor rooted in sadness, particularly the type churning beneath history like a black river.

Among the doctor/sorcerer’s covert weapons is a mural-sized painting akin to Picasso’s Guernica, which charges anyone who views it with murderous compulsions. Enter Francis Wyndham, artist, who teaches art therapy at Caligari’s Weizenstaat “clinic,” where patients apparently are urged to enter what can only be described as induced cognitive dissonance—a state worse than that which brought them there. But it’s World War I, and they all could die at any moment. As another great writer once wrote: Nothing is true. Everything is permitted.

It certainly is in THE ASYLUM OF DR. CALIGARI, whose entrance might come with a warning: Abandon sanity all ye who enter here—until you cheer up.

Joe Karpierz in MT VOID 05/26/17 (Vol. 35, No. 48) enjoys the book.

Morrow fills the book with a good number of scenes that must have been as fun to write as they were to read: Wyndham and his cohorts watching soldiers of various countries being marched in front of the painting and coming out ready to march to their death for their countries; a similar scene with Wyndham’s and Wessel’s painting, except with the opposite results; and in a bit of storytelling reminiscent of the scene of Dick Van Dyke’s character in Mary Poppins jumping into a painting to do a song and dance, Wyndham and Wessels jump into their painting–with characters there recognizing who Ilona is–to try to stop Caligari’s effort.

The key word in that paragraph is storytelling. Morrow spins a great yarn in this novella. The writing is excellent, the characters come to life on the page and make us care about them, and there is enough magic, psychology, art and romance to keep most readers engaged and interested. Indeed, Morrow injects a good variety of things to think about, and yet the novella doesn’t feel forced when it finally comes to an end–and make no mistake, there is a definite ending here. The ending itself is a bit melancholy; it’s almost as if Morrow is showing us that as with any fictional character, those who live in magical paintings can come to an end too. The ending didn’t leave me wanting for more, but it was a satisfying conclusion to the story and the characters therein.

We’re not looking at a great piece of literature here that will be remembered for decades to come, I think. But what we are talking about is a fun and whimsical story that will keep the reader eagerly turning the pages and being very happy with what they’ve read. A lot of times, that’s all readers really need anyway.

At DIABOLIQUE, Sheila M. Merritt reviews the work.

Despite all the sabotage and machinations, the tale is basically ruminations on philosophical topics. Author Morrow sees the impish humor that exists in political and aesthetic theorizing. He is a crafty wordsmith who likes to hone in on poseurs and pretensions.

THE ASYLUM OF DR. CALIGARI, published by Tachyon Publications, may mislead devotees of the film because of its title. That could be construed as a faux lure. Readers who are fond of wry esoteric musings will not be disappointed.

Andrew Wheeler of THE ANTICK MUSINGS OF G. B. H. HORNSWOGGLER, GENT. is excited about THE ASYLUM OF DR. CALIGARI.

A big bonus is when it’s a new book by a writer I’ve been reading and loving for decades, of course. Like today – with a new James Morrow short novel from Tachyon.

<snip>

This one is set in 1914, and, yes, it is a retelling of that classic German Expressionist film THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI, in prose form. But, in Morrow’s version, the diabolical doctor has created a painting that can brainwash anyone who sees it – and plans to charge governments to use it to turn their solders into perfect soldiers, with no sense of self-preservation. Our hero is a young American painter, and he sounds like a typical Morrow protagonist: noble enough to see something horrible wrong but possibly not strong enough to stop it.

Morrow has always been the great moral writer of the SF field, deeply concerned with the big questions of evil and hatred and death. DR. CALIGARI looks like no exception, and I hope you’ll be as happy to see it as I am.

For more info on THE ASYLUM OF DR. CALIGARI, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Elizabeth Story

June 13, 2017

James Morrow’s THE ASYLUM OF DR. CALIGARI is an unputdownable read

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized elizabeth story, gary k wolfe, ian white, James Morrow, Locus, Publishers Weekly, review, starburst, the asylum of dr caligari, the cabinet of dr. caligari

For STARBURST, Ian White loves James Morrow’s THE ASYLUM OF DR. CALIGARI.

Fans of Robert Wiene’s silent-film classic THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI will love this novel. It’s a rich and wonderful mash-up of political satire, psychological fairytale and German Expressionist horror story, with a touch of sci-fi thrown in for good measure. Author James Morrow has created this tale with obvious respect and affection for Wiene’s 1920s masterwork, and he has performed that neat trick of staying absolutely true to the original concept while shooting it off into a direction that makes it entirely his own. There’s a gorgeous edge to Morrow’s writing, a sense of fun and irreverence that never detracts from the dark jeopardy at the heart of the story but which keeps the whole mad adventure chugging along at a rate of knots, and the tension and suspense he manages to build up in the final third of the book is quite extraordinary. Even the last page pulls a sly punch, and leaves you thinking and wondering about the story long after it’s finished. This is the kind of sequel that makes you wish for a time machine, because if Wiene had put Morrow’s novel in front of the cameras the results would have been sensational. An unputdownable read, in all the best senses of that word.

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY enjoys the work.

Entrancing prose enhances the unusual plot of Morrow’s successful melding of history and fantasy. Francis Wyndham, a self-described “bookish farm boy from central Pennsylvania,” had his life changed, in 1913, by an inspirational visit to a modern art exhibition.

<snip>

Readers with a taste for the bizarre and unexpected will be satisfied.

Gary K. Wolfe in the June, 2017 LOCUS praises the book.

There comes a point in a James Morrow story when you turn a corner and realize that, despite his careful grounding in historical detail and his clean narrative line, he’s likely to do anything to drive home his main satirical points. Whether you view
him as a polemical entertainer or an entertaining
polemicist, his stories are governed more by
moral outrage than any sort of conventional plot
logic, so that if he decides to reimagine Godzilla
as an unlikely superweapon of the US Navy or
have aliens planning to wipe out a good part of
humanity because 1950s TV is so bad, we go with
it. Those examples are from two of his novellas
from Tachyon, SHAMBLING TOWARD HIROSHIMA and THE MADONNA AND THE STARSHIP, and the
novella seems particularly well suited for Morrow’s
brand of intellectual lunacy.

<snip>

It covers a lot of territory – including an unexpected twist toward the end that reveals something about the narrator – but, as is always the case with Morrow, he keeps the ride interesting and at times painfully funny.

For more info on THE ASYLUM OF DR. CALIGARI, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Elizabeth Story